Environmental Protection and Free Trade Coexisting

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Environmental Protection and Free Trade Coexisting

An important issue in the international relations of the twentieth century involves whether or not free trade and environmental protection can coexist. The goal of a free trade economy is to increase the global economy, while environmental protectors try to find ways of reversing some of the negative effects that humans have inflicted upon the earth. Because of the increasing popularity of this “green movement,” many political leaders are trying to find ways to make the two drastically different ideas incorporated into one. However, there is no real compromise between the two. Effective policies can not advocate to protect only certain species—its all or nothing. The same is true for free trade. Many people have the perception that free trade and environmental protection are so drastically different that it is not possible for the two to coincide. Some people find both of these issues to be the cause of all our “most pressing” global, environmental, mental, human health, and democratic problems.

Critics of the free trade agreement argue that free trade “pretends to be value free, yet is fundamentally value driven (Goldsmith, 219).” Because of its significant source of national revenue, trade has been synonymous with states’ political goals since the early inhabitants of the earth first realized how to transport goods over long distances. At first, this early trading system was simply a way of enriching one’s personal fortune, yet it soon became an easy way for countries to gain money and power.

Intellectual arguments in support of free trade began in the late nineteenth century, but the political drive promoting this global trade approach did not become a reality...

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... NAFTA and the Future of Environmental Politics. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 1997.

2. Brown, Edmond G. Jr. “Free Trade Is Not Free.” The Case Against “Free Trade”. San Francisco: Earth Island Press, 1993.

3. Daly, Herman E. “From Adjustment to Sustainable Development: the Obstacle of Free Trade.” The Case Against “Free Trade”. San Francisco: Earth Island Press, 1993.

4. Goldsmith, Edward. “Global Trade and the Environment” The Case Against the Global Economy, ed.: Jerry Mandar and Edward Goldsmith. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1996.

5. Goldsmith, Edward. “The Winners and the Losers” The Case Against the Global Economy, ed.: Jerry Mandar and Edward Goldsmith. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1996.

6. Hall, Kevin G. “Mexico Adamant About Keeping Environment Our of Trade Talks”. Journal of Commerce, 1999.

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